The Old Collagen Try

As I said in my previous post, I’ve been taking collagen as a supplement for many years.

It is one supplement that hasn't ended up in my “supplement graveyard.” I did take a break for a few years as habits came and went, but I’ve been pretty consistent for several months now, especially since my morning ritual includes making coffee and pouring it for my partner and me.

I keep his simple with some sugar-free flavour syrup and 35% cream. My condiments of choice make my first cup kind of fancy:

There’s always 35% cream in that first cup along with a collagen powder and whatever sweetener I feel like having that day. Sometimes I choose a sugar-free flavour syrup, which is the only time I’ll ever ingest sucralose, aka Splenda. Other days I prefer a granulated non-sugar sweetener, specifically an erythritol-monkfruit blend that I buy at Bulk Barn.

Always collagen, and mixed with a milk frother (previously I used a stick blender, and before that, a Vitamix – my appliances keep getting smaller).

This was my coffee on January 15.

I like how collagen helps coffee froth, even when I don’t use cream, and I like how collagen supplementation makes me feel. Some of the positive effects might be all in my head, but I do see some physical benefits. Consuming collagen might contribute to my overall health, including keeping my nails strong and my hair not grey, it might be holding symptoms of depression at bay, and consuming collagen daily might be one of the reasons that I look younger than my age.

When I began taking collagen, the choice was limited. Most people, including myself, used the Great Lakes brand, available sourced from pig or cow. I had to buy it online. Now, there are so many brands and each brand has several varieties and lines. The iHerb website lists 222 products in their collagen category. Amazon's got over 1,000 results under the search term, “collagen“.

I can't say that I've tried collagen from every company but I've tried a few. Perhaps as I try more, I'll post about those too.

Some companies have several lines of collagen products. In addition to collagen peptides (the basic collagen powder), many companies now make collagen creamer with MCT oil powder (for coffee) and collagen shots, in addition to other products to get ahead in the market.

Collagen creamer is a product I’ve been seeing more of recently.

Today, before blending & frothing.

Sproos Collagen

Several months ago the PR company that represents Sproos sent me a full-size (300g) container of Sproos Grass-Fed Collagen along with sample sizes of some of their other products – sizes small enough to taste but not assess the efficiency or quality of.

It seems a bit odd to compare the two now, as I’d originally intended, but I’ve already committed.

Here’s a quick overview:

Sproos’s website describes their product as,

Hydrolyzed bovine collagen peptides sourced from the hides of grass-fed, pasture-raised North American cattle, to help restore and rebuild your body’s natural collagen.

Organika’s website also describes their product as coming from grass-fed cows (they don’t say which part of the cow) and mentions that it’s free from antibiotics, hormones and GMOs. Both mention the benefits of their product of course, but my last post addressed the benefits.

They both have the same nutritional profile, with the same amino acids. Sproos’s label lists the amino acids profile in milligrams per serving, while Organika’s goes by percentage per serving. I can’t do an exact comparison, but they appear comparable, having less or more of each amino acid. This is because they both use bovine-derived collagen and only that, so there’s no reason for the amounts per serving to deviate.

They both have a neutral taste.

Both Sproos and Organika are Canadian companies, which I’m happy and rather support because of the current economic and political climates. Sproos is headquartered in Whistler, BC and Organika is based in Richmond, BC.

If I have to list distinguishing features (because I’m comparing):

Package:

I like Sproos’s package design a bit better, which has nothing to do with the product or its quality.

Size and price:

Sproos has 30 servings per 300-gram container. The price is listed as $34.99 on their website. (They also offer boxes of individually packed servings.)

I bought the 250-gram (25 serving) container of the Organika product. They also offer 150-gram and 500-gram containers. Their website links to their Amazon store, which sells the 25 serving container for $29.99

Comparing these Sproos and Organika products, the price difference is negligible, with $1.17/serving for Sproos and $1.19/serving for Organika.

My preference

Given what I said above, you’d think that I don’t have a preference between the two. I do, though, and it comes down to one aspect of user experience.

I could – and do – measure out two Tablespoons but I’d rather keep a scoop in the container and keep my measuring spoon clean for other uses, such as making single-serve keto-friendly chocolate cakes.

The same goes for other Organika products that I've bought, which I might address in another post: A scoop would be a benefit to using the products. Not that the lack of scoop is a barrier, but it helps.

My next purchases

I now have a strategy for my next collagen purchases, based on what I learned from my research and this measurement preference:

My next container of collagen will be Sproos Marine Collagen, which is also 10 grams of collagen per serving but made from fish skin. (Organika’s fish-sourced collagen comes from freshwater cod, with 9 grams of collagen per serving.)

Sproos also sent me single-serving samples of two of their three Enhanced Collagen beverage crystals, which address gut, skin & hair and joints, respectively. I’d like to try the third.

Subsequently, I look forward to trying Organika’s Full Spectrum because there are several types of collagen and I feel that our bodies might need all of them, but I’ll keep the scoop from the Sproos jar. The Full Spectrum product hasn’t yet been released, but I discovered it on their website.

Although they’re one of my favourite companies in this industry and are Toronto-based like me, I haven’t yet tried the collagen from Genuine Health. Their bovine-derived collagen seems comparable to the others. Their marine collagen contains 10g per serving and is sourced from from “wild caught fish” (skin).

I think that when/if I buy bovine collagen again, I’ll go with whichever of the three is on sale as long as I've kept a measuring scoop.